Adopt a Second Year
by MysticalButterfly98
Summary: James Potter is Head Boy, Quidditch captain and getting ready for adulthood as he enters his seventh year. One thing he doesn't need in his life is some silly 12 year old hovering over him. But this girl named Katie may just be the key to winning over Lily Evans, the Head Girl. Only 2 problems stand in the way, Katie and Sirius constantly argue and her arch-enemy was chosen by Lily
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi there, my name is MysticalButterfly98 and this is (obviously) the first chapter of my first fic! First off, I must apologize for the quality. I wanted to start writing the story but I can't just start at some random point. I needed to scrawl down the first chapter and start off of that. I'd really appreciate if you all would send constructive criticism (from spelling errors to improving my writing style) through review or even PM. Also, I really enjoy reading how people liked or disliked my work, so be honest and go crazy in the little box below! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

James opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He sighed and reached for his glasses- today was the day in which he was forced, unlike all the other 7th years, to choose some silly little 12 year old to mentor for an entire year. How could he do all that while he was Head Boy, captain of the Quidditch team, take care of Remus and on a quest for Lily's affection. He held so many secrets and tasks that the thought of taking in some random child was such a farfetched and outrageous idea.

"Oi! Wake up, Potter! McGonagall will have your head if you're not in the Great Hall before 9 am!" an all to familiar voice hollered from behind his closed door. Lily Evans; Head Girl. Lily Evans, the love of James' life.

"Coming, Flower!" he yelled back in a sing-song manner, receiving the predictable reaction of a sharp "Ugh," and a kick on his door. He smiled at the ceiling and hauled himself out of bed. He slipped off his pajamas and hopped into a messy, day-old uniform and grabbed his Head Boy pin. He stashed his wand in his belt hole and flew out of his dorm with three minutes until nine.

Desperate to not get his head chewed off by McGonagall, he skid down the stairs and sprinted towards the Great Hall. He burst in, receiving several confused looks from the younger children and scoffs from the seventh years. They obviously thought that he was not fit for the position as Head Boy, but Dumbledore knew what he was doing.

"Potter!" McGonagall hissed sharply; it was two minutes past nine. James flipped his incredibly messy hair and flashed his classic Marauder smile.

"Sorry I'm late," he called out to the entire Hall; Lily glared and McGonagall looked murderous.

"That's quite alright, Mr. Potter," Headmaster Dumbledore chuckled and gestured to the empty seat beside him, indicating that James should take it and shut his mouth. He strolled lazily and plopped down in his chair. He was trying to tell everyone that he did NOT want to be there.

"Greetings, students and faculty! Allow me to announce again that we shall be welcoming another excellent and magical year here at Hogwarts," Dumbledore began.

"Allow me to explain the purpose of this program. 'Adopt a Second Year' is a wonderful and special program that allows people of two totally different age groups and life statuses to connect. The most unlikely friendships become the most fascinating bond in one's lifetime," he explained. People began to nod off and he clapped his hands together to regain their attention.

"So, let us begin! You may choose any person of any house, but choose carefully. There's no switching here! Seventh years to the left and second years to the right please!" Everyone stood up and went to their respective sides. The height difference was quite a spectacle; seventh years nearing 6'8 and second years several inches below 5'3. James caught sight of one of the shorter kids who was sporting a Gryffindor tie. She was quite tiny and cute with her chubby cheeks, round brown eyes and frilly chocolate curls.

"Let the start of a fantastic relationship begin!" Dumbledore said gleefully and the Seventh years broke the line while the second years shifted about, looking quite nervous. Lily tugged at James' wrist and jerked him forward.

"Come on, you're Head Boy!" she hissed and he had to stifle a laugh. She straightened her back and walked confidently toward the second years. James looked back at the girl he noticed earlier. She looked up and caught him staring at her. She looked apprehensive at first, but then curious. James walked up to her and sat himself down on the floor so he could get down to her level.

"Hello!" she exclaimed happily. She sounded kind of tired- perhaps mellowed out?

"Do you want to be my adoptee?" he said awkwardly. He wasn't used to associating with children under the age of 15. She blinked at him.

"Hmm...Okay!" she exclaimed and her face lit up.

"BRILLIANT!" he shouted, grabbed her by the arm and sped off towards McGonagall to properly sign up. The girl, being so tiny in comparison to James, toppled over and was literally dragged along by him.

"Whoaa!" she wailed as he basically mopped the floor with her.

"Potter! POTTER!" McGonagall hollered, scurrying after him.

"Pick her up now! 5 points from Gryffindor!" she ordered sternly. James looked at the girl sheepishly and helped her up. She shook her head out like a dog, flinging her curls all about.

"Professor, this is my new friend…"

"Katie!" the girl supplied, saving him from embarrasment. James looked quite thankful that she chimed in, but McGonagall looked less than convinced.

"Yes, and Miss Andersen," she said to girl now known as Katie, "do you know the name of your new 'friend'?"

"Uummmm..." Katie sounded unsure at first.

"Potter!" she announced loudly, surprising both James and McGonagall. She smiled excitededly.

"Very well, then. Mr. Potter, you are now Miss Andersen's mentor. Miss Andersen... Watch where you step," professor McGonagall warned and shot her a concerned look before hurrying off to pair up another seventh year with their second year.

"So, Katie, what's up?" James asked awkwardly. He was so large compared to her that he resorted to walking with his knees bent down lower so that she didn't need to fully tilt her head upwards to see his face.

"You are, silly!" she said and laughed at her own joke. 'Oh Merlin,' James thought to himself, 'this is going to be a long year...'

"Oi! Ja-POTTER! Who'd you choose?" Lily asked, almost calling him James rather than barking out his surname.

"Well, this little lady over here can introduce herself," James pushed Katie forward so she could greet Lily.

"Katie Andersen, pleased to meet you!" she stuck out her tiny hand with chipped pink nail polish. Lily took hers and shook it eagerly- she was always excited to meet new friends.

"Lily Evans, Head Girl," she said kindly.

"Why are you TOUCHING HER?" a disgusted voice demanded. Katie dropped Lily's hand and the cuteness of her face was replaced with a stone hard expression filled with hatred and all things evil.

"Holzfäller!" she spat with a tone full of poison.

The boy stepped out from behind Lily. He had blonde hair and green eyes which were squinting with anger.

"Andersen!" he snapped back with an equal amount of venom.

"Get away from MY seventh year!" he snarled.

"Get YOUR seventh year away from ME!" Katie yelled. It was almost alarming how loud she yelled. The two started to bicker furiously.

James and Lily looked at each other and sighed. This would be a long year indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey! Sorry this took such a long time, I've been rather busy these past few days. Thank you so so so much for the reviews, the favorites and the follows 3 I hope this chapter is better than the first! Please do let me know :)**

**Happy Reading!**

**-MysticalButterfly98**

* * *

Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks, James neglected his relationship with Katie to tend to his other responsibilities. There was the casual "Hi" and "Bye" when they passed each other, but he generally avoided further contact with her. What else could he do, though? He was preparing for the first Quidditch match of the season, Lily had yelled at him for laughing when a Slytherin fell over, and the first full moon of the school year was in 2 days. Katie had yet to meet Remus, Sirius and Peter.

Katie on the other hand was rather upset that James threw their "friendship" over his shoulder like an old piece of parchment. She was looking forward to having a mentor guiding her through the year. She liked making new friends even though she was kind of quiet.

Lily and her second year, George Holzfäller, were nearly inseparable since they first met. Unfortunately for Katie, George often told some sort of funny anecdote including Lily in front of her to make her jealous.

Katie made the bold decision to confront James about his lack of interest in her. She wanted him to like her, really. She felt as if he thought she was insignificant to him.

James gobbled up his dinner sloppily while telling his friends about the plan for the next full moon.

"So when Moony needs to go visit his mother, we'll cover his Transfiguration and Potions work, right?" he said in code- secretly indicating to the areas that Sirius and Peter had to cover when Remus was in the Shrieking Shack.

As Sirius was telling a joke, Katie decided it would be appropriate to speak to James. She shuffled over to him and tapped is shoulder lightly. He turned his head and looked mildly surprised that it was her standing behind him.

"Oh, hello Katie! What's up?" he asked nonchalantly. She had no expression on her face, but her voice said otherwise.

"Well if you're expecting 'You are, silly,' then you're going to be disappointed!" she said sharply. The tone didn't suit her childish voice.

James began to laugh and Sirius started joking around.

"Lady troubles this early in the term, James? It took you six years to learn from me," he smirked and Katie shot him a nasty look.

"Katie, this is Sirius. He's a dog, really," James gestured to Sirius and received a dinner roll lobbed at his head.

"I know who he is, but it's you I'm here to talk to..." she trailed off. James finally looked serious and stood up from his seat. He led her out of the Great Hall and sat her down on a staircase.

"Look, Katie, I know I really haven't been around you much but I can explain..." he said.

"More like you didn't even care!" she exclaimed. James looked very guilty, he didn't really think much of it. She looked at him, trying to order a response out of him with her glare.

"Katie, I'm sorry... I just.. I have a lot on my plate right now 'cause I'm Head Boy and Quidditch Captain and I need to start preparing for university and everything. You'll understand once you get to my age, but I have to apologize to you. I didn't know how much this meant to you and I do want to be your friend," he rambled on, asking himself internally why he was explaining all of this to a twelve year old.

Katie suddenly looked apologetic. She didn't realize how many important responsibilities James had hovering over him. She felt bad for showing him attitude and trying to make him the bad guy.

"James, I feel bad for yelling at you," Katie said in a small voice, she looked down and her hair was draped over her face like a curtain. James couldn't help but allow his heart to melt at the sight, she was just so little and young that he couldn't say anything mean to her.

"No, no, it's fine. Don't worry," he said truthfully and he lightly pushed the hair out of her face.

"I'll tell you what- meet me at the Quidditch Pitch at 6:30 tomorrow, that's when practice ends. We could hang out and get to know each other?" James suggested and Katie looked excited.

"Okay, that sounds good!" she exclaimed and hopped around with joy. James smiled at her and held out his hand. Katie looked at it before putting out her own hand and shaking his.

"Why are we doing this?" she asked as they shook hands for a good 15 seconds.

"It's a 'peace treaty'... A truce I suppose," James explained and he dropped her hand. She giggled- which sounded quite similar to a baby's laugh, and waved goodbye to him. James felt much better yet rather nervous about his increased workload.

The next evening was quite foggy, resulting in a challenging practice for the Gryffindors. The practice had started at 4 so they could make some use of the minuscule amount of daylight that was present. After two and a half hours of practicing and not being able to see even a half a meter beyond themselves, the Gryffindors landed back on the ground to clean off and head back up to the towers.

"Prongs, why'd you keep us so long when we can hardly see our own hand in front of our face?" Sirius asked, lugging himself towards James.

"The first match is in three days and we're playing against Slytherin. I don't give a damn if it's pitch black with lightning storms- we CANNOT afford to lose!" James yelled out, unable to locate his friend in the thick opaque fog.

Just then, Sirius felt something hit him. Somebody fell back with an "Oof,". A little hand popped out of the fog and began feeling around for someone, grasping at Sirius's shoelaces.

"Oi! Who's touching me?" he yelled.

"Me, sorry," a high-pitched voice replied.

"Who the hell is 'me'?" he asked in an annoyed manner- whoever it was wasn't giving him much to work with.

"Well, it's not me, that's what!" James yelled back to him with his deep voice.

"James?" the high pitched voice called out.

"It's Sirius! Why are you untying my shoelaces!?" Sirius barked.

"Oh, sorry!" the high pitched voice apologized frantically, and the owner of the voice pulled themselves up off the ground and began to poke around in the air to see if they could find anyone. Their index finger jabbed straight into Sirius's bellybutton and he yelped with surprise.

Sirius grabbed the finger with his own gloved hand and looked at it. It was tiny, slim and there was chipped pink polish on the little nail. He reached out further and picked up the person, suddenly realizing that she was James's second year.

"James, I found your kid!" he called out into the fog.

"I am NOT a kid!" the tiny girl yelled back.

"Yeah yeah, whatever..." he muttered and started trotting around to nowhere in particular, trying to find James.

"Where are you?" James yelled, he sounded like he was moving farther away from Sirius and Katie.

"Stay right there, Prongs, I'll come and find you!" Sirius responded. He was still carrying Katie around.

"Hey... Kathy, do you have your wand with you?" He asked.

"It's KATIE and yes I do!" she corrected him loudly by accidentally yelling right in his face.

"Why didn't you just take it out earlier?" he questioned her in a frustrated tone. He didn't exactly fair well with children.

"Nobody asked me,"

Sirius shot a pissed off look at nothing in particular. Katie took out her wand from underneath her cloak and Sirius put her back down on the ground.

"Lumos!" she said and swished the tip of her wand. A dull orb of light formed around the tip of it and Sirius sighed.

"What good is 'Lumos' going to do in the middle of all this fog?" he snapped.

"Lumos Maxima...?" she tried again, only the light just became bright enough for them to see each others faces.

"NO!" he shouted angrily.

"Well SORRY for trying to help!" Katie snapped back at him. He was too annoyed to care that the littlest and most quiet Gryffindor just yelled at him.

"Alright, gimme the wand!" he said and snatched at the dull dim light, grabbing the wand from her hand.

He brandished the wand at the fog, using wordless magic to clear it up. Katie watched in awe- she had never seen wordless magic being done by a student before. Just then, James's faint outline made an appearance; he was sitting on the floor and cleaning his glasses with his shirt. Sirius thrust the wand back at her and she took it. He then jogged off to James and she struggled to chase after him.

"Prongs, take your kid! I'm going to the washrooms and then to dinner," Sirius sounded exasperated and he took off towards the bleachers to collect his stuff. Now it was just James and Katie.

"Well that happened!" James laughed and Katie cracked a smile. It was quite a chaotic entrance on both their parts. Katie took his hand and held it loosely in her own as she was scared of losing him in the persisting cloudy atmosphere.

"Come on, let's go to the bleachers," James said quietly and guided Katie in the direction of the risers. He had to admit that he was curious about her and could see an interesting relationship forming between them.

He helped Katie up on to the first level of the bleachers and they climbed to the very top row which overlooked the entire pitch and past the Black Lake- except only the lights from the castle were hardly visible.

"Great view," she said sarcastically. They both looked at each other and laughed. They had no idea where to start when it came to really becoming friends, so the next few minutes were rather awkward until James proposed an idea.

"Hey, why don't we make this easier for us both and play 20 Questions?" he asked and Katie nodded her head.

"You go first!" she said.

"Okay… Um…. Where are you from?" James questioned.

"Cornwall. What's your full name?" Katie answered him and then asked her first question.

"James Charlus Potter," He purposely muffled up his voice on his middle name.

"Pardon?"

James sighed and repeated himself. "James Charlus Potter…" He expected Katie to laugh but she just blinked at him. To avoid any unneeded silence, he asked her the same question.

"Kathleen Bethany Andersen," she replied.

"How tall are you?"

"I'm six feet tall. Are you a Muggle-born, Half-blood or Pureblood?" James asked her.

"Muggle-born. Only one in my family, too. My parents don't really like it, but my siblings think it's cool," Katie explained.

"You have siblings?" he asked her curiously. He honestly didn't really think of her as someone who really 'existed' in a sense. It wasn't beyond him to think that she was like a wind-up doll or something.

"Yes, two! I have twin younger brothers. They're both seven," She answered him.

The pair had sat up on the highest row the bleachers had for two hours before realizing what time it was. They discussed everything from what their favorite class was to what their survival tactics would be if they were stranded in Antarctica. The fog had begun to clear up slightly so the outlines of everything were visible. This made it easier and less dangerous to return back to the castle, but it was 8:45 pm and students would get in trouble if they were out of bed past 9 o'clock. With that small bit of information, Katie and James quickly rushed down the tiny dark staircase, through the Quidditch pitch and into the castle with only 4 minutes to spare. Katie had tripped over her cloak many times and stopped at a pillar to tie her shoe. James ended up pulling her shoe off and scooping her up like a little baby before running up 5 flights of stairs. At the last flight, James nearly collapsed on the floor, dropping Katie's shoe all the way to the very bottom of the dark, mysterious floor. The shoe conveniently dodged each and every moving staircase and its size dwindled until it was no longer visible. It landed with a loud stomping noise and James burst out laughing and panting.

Katie did not find this nearly as funny as James did and she tried to summon her lost shoe with the oh-so-useful 'Accio'. Instead, her remaining shoe slipped off her foot and ended up smacking her in the forehead. This resulted in them both laughing hysterically on the ground. Dumbledore was right; it would be a very beautiful friendship.


End file.
